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PRAGADEESHWARAN U K's avatar

An insightful letter without much technical details. Maybe on your next non technical letter, please write about cornering down a single area of interest and more into choosing a guide and research centers for PhD.

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Jacob Clarke's avatar

This was a great article, Vikram. I've got loads of thoughts and I'll try and summarize a few of them (from the viewpoint of someone who did a Master's and decided against a PhD).

- I totally agree, if you don't believe you will stay in academia, a PhD is probably not worth the time, tuition, and opportunity costs. You likely become over-trained in a small niche, and vastly under-trained in most other areas, and makes you not worth the salary you'd expect.

- As far as a Master's degree, I think I hold a slightly different view. Overall, I believe the extra schooling isn't worth getting unless you know the job you want (e.g., school principal) requires it. Most of the points you mention that made it worth it - communication, efficient work - I believe you can accomplish in a regular job. Arguably, efficient work and communication get better in a normal job I would believe.

- However, learning to learn I think is best done in a university setting where you have a low risk of messing up, and can explore topics or problems you want without much oversight from a boss. This environment is perfect for developing applicable problem-solving skills.

Thanks again for this article and the debate of grad school being worth it or not will always be a tough question for anyone considering it; I appreciate you sharing!

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